green shifting, christian bale and success

There’s this phenomenon called green shifting which is a business or management term for the tendency to say things are fine when they are not. I first heard about it on a podcast called Accidental Tech Podcast. The guys on the programme describe it in relation to how the conditions of most organisations make it very difficult for people lower down in an organisation to clearly – and accurately – describe problems to people higher up.

And then, around the same, I watched this:

If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth every minute of your time.

Christian Bale and green shifting got me thinking about how projects succeed and fail. What does it take for someone to ask the most difficult questions? How am I responsible for creating conditions that make awkwardness – and friction – possible? How do my assumptions about my ability and role(s) infect and affect the people around me? Which lines need to be stepped over, and which ones should not be transgressed? I wonder also to what extent the conditions for success and failure in business are distinct from those in making art.

shannon and bassano

I’ve had the tremendous pleasure of working with Australian artist Shannon Bott on and off since 2003. In May this year we are meeting in Bassano del Grappa, Italy – with the support of Centro per la Scena Contemporanea – for a week-long choreographic residency. We will be working quickly and intensely, in order to imagine a new or different set of choreographic and performance problems. We wonder what conditions might make newness possible for us and how might this feel and look.

In Italiano: http://www.operaestate.it/evento/ellis-bott/

There will be a public performance at the Garage Nardini on Friday 6 May at 21:00.

Thanks in particular to Roberto Casarotto for making this residency happen.

provoke and disturb

Reading the materials these days you’d know that art is about celebrating, bringing together, and affirming. You’d know that its about creative self-expression. It’s harder somehow to find reference to things like the fact that the arts might challenge, provoke or disturb. It’s hard to find an emphasis on things like difficulty, difference, division or dissent.

– Tim Etchells, http://timetchells.com/isdf-opening/?month=6&year=2012